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Head to head: iPhone 3GS vs Palm Pre

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By Maggie Holland, 20 Oct 2009

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The latest in our head-to-head review series sees how the iPhone matches up to the latest so-called iPhone killer, the Palm Pre.

AOB?

You can pick up the Palm Pre for free, provided you’re willing to shell out £30 or so a month and commit to O2 for two whole years, which is a long time to be stuck with one phone. For the iPhone, however, things could all change very soon.

Orange will be making the iPhone available on its network by the end of the year, followed quite soon after by Vodafone (although it will only say early 2010 at this stage). This flurry of activity is likely to result in better pricing for users.

The Apple App Store is maturing nicely and growing in popularity every day. As such, Palm’s App Catalog looks barren in comparison. But, due to the age factor, we’d be comparing apples and oranges here by suggesting it was fair to make a call. So we won’t. Although Apple’s is clearly superior at this stage. For obvious reasons.

Winner: Tie. At this moment in time, the Pre could well be better value. But tomorrow is another day. The same could be said of apps. With thousands of apps already and more arriving every day, Apple’s App Store runs rings around Palm’s. That said, its App Catalog is only just getting started and, with developer support, could gain momentum quite quickly.

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4 comments

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Multitasking

Not mentioned is the fact that the iPhone on GSM multi-tasks voice and data where as the Palm Pre and other Verizon CDMA phones only allow voice or data.

So the iPhone multi-tasks where it counts (plus, you can listen to music, run a program and talk on the phone at the same time).

By rvassar on Wednesday Oct 21

gsm version comming soon

there are already pictures of the gsm version of the pre and pixie... they will come out in 2010... so fear not... pre will have true multi-tasking soon...
for a 1st gen to be even close to the 3rd gen iphone says alot...

By qwijjibow on Wednesday Oct 21

Remarkably naive review

Fromt he first sentence on, this review leaves a lot to be desired. To begin with, the entire concept of an "iPhone killer" is nonsensical. The Pre is positioned, as Roger McNamee has said in virtually every interview he has given, to compete among the top few players in the smartphone market.

But the larger problem with the review is the attention to small details with a complete misunderstanding of the major philosophical differences that went into the design decisions that ultimately determine user's experience.

The reviewer sees fit to compare the volume rockers, yet only mentions the Pre's multitasking in passing. Consider for a second, if you will, whether you would consider purchasing a PC that could only run one program at a time. Oh, want to send an email? Gotta close the browser. Oops, forgot the phone number you need to mention in your email? Close the email. Open the contacts. Note the number. Close the contacts, open the email again. Oh, no! What day was the meeting? I think you catch my drift here. Multitasking is a very big deal. One of Palm's insights is that as the power of these small devices begin to rival PC's, people are going to use them in place of their larger cousins. Kudos to Palm for thinking so insightfully about that.

I used an iPhone since its introduction, and I love it. But I've also used a Pre since it was introduced, and would have a very hard time going back to the iPhone. I just can't be productive without having several applications open at the same time.

While the hardware differences pale in significance by comparison to the multitasking, I still have to ask if the reviewer ever tried putting an iPhone in a pocket and compared that to the same experience with a Pre. The Pre is a far better fit, in my opinion.

Most galling, though, is that no mention is made of Palm's Synergy, which seamlessly merges a contact's information from the built-in address book with information about him or her from Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn, presenting it all as a single entry. That's an amazingly good idea. Fundamentally, Palm has made the observation that a smartphone is not just a collection of unrelated information. Time will tell what other insights can be drawn about the relationship between the calendar, the address book, the present GPS location, and the other collections of information that until now have been sitting in their isolated silos.

While I may appear to be a big fan of the Pre (which I am), I don't mean to imply that the Pre is the "winner." The purpose of a review should be to help the reader decide for himself or herself which smartphone is best for his or her own purposes. But that cannot be accomplished without a reasonable discussion of the major differences between the machines.

This review needs to be scrapped and done all over again.

By remonl on Wednesday Oct 21

Maggie, IT PRO

remonl, agreed, the Synergy feature is both innovative and valuable - we have now reflected this in the article. Thank you for flagging. Having played with both the Pre and the iPhone 3GS, both separately and together many times we like them both very much (as our standalone reviews will show: http://www.itpro.co.uk/616009/palm-pre-review and http://www.itpro.co.uk/612067/apple-iphone-3gs-review ) but the purpose of the head to head is to do a comparison of very specific areas, such as looks, features, vital statistics and any thing else of relevance. Sometimes, these added together will create a 'winner' but that does not invalidate the beneficial features of the 'losing' handset. Indeed, as you rightly point out, it should be up to the user to choose which features are most important to them.

By Ip_maggie_hollan on Thursday Oct 22